by Dan Mitchell | Oct 11, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, Taxation
President Obama supports higher taxes, but he usually claims he only wants higher tax rates on evil rich people as part of his class-warfare agenda. Heck, he promised back in 2008 that, “no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 10, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, States, Tax Competition, Taxation
I periodically mock the crazy statists of California. The state is almost surely doomed to suffer a Greek-style fiscal chaos. The only unknown is whether Illinois will beat the Golden State into default. The politicians in Sacramento impose very high taxes to fund a...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 9, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, States, Taxation
One of my favorite Cato Institute publications is the Fiscal Policy Report Card on America’s Governors, which is produced by my colleague Chris Edwards. The report card uses variables such as the burden of government spending and the degree of class warfare tax policy...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 5, 2012 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation
In a violation of the 8th Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, my brutal overseers at the Cato Institute required me to watch Wednesday’s debate (you can see what Cato scholars said by clicking here). But I will admit that it was good to...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 4, 2012 | Blogs, Economics, Laffer Curve, Tax Competition, Taxation
I’ve shared evidence from around the world (England, Italy, the United States, and France) and from various states (Illinois, Oregon, Florida,Maryland, and New York) to argue that it is foolish to ignore the Laffer Curve. Not that it makes any difference. I’m slowly...